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Coded correspondence
The day following the completion of the Sri Lanka Video, coded communications between Malick and Rachel Blake began to appear on The official Lost Experience weblogs (Speaker, The Other Girl and Lost Ninja). They were parts of a continuing conversation between the two regarding the setup of a meeting, most likely between Blake and Alvar Hanso. The messages serve as an explanation for how Rachel managed to escape Sri Lanka after seemingly being attacked and captured in her video. They also explain where she went next (back to the United States), and why she then traveled to Narvik (to see Alvar Hanso in the Norway video). Prelude Message On August 11th, during a DJ Dan live broadcast, Malick phoned in and stated the following numbers would correspond as part of a book cipher to a work that was "appropriate considering the controversy raging around you": Solution The book Malick used for the cipher is Bad Twin by Gary Troup, and using the first letter from the page numbers he quotes creates: Message 1 The first message was emailed to Speaker by an unknown source, who posted it on his blog on September 9th with a filename Ironman_1. The message is from Rachel to Malik. Swinging the image around makes the following (assuming it is literally a mirrored image): Solution This is a hexadecimal code, a numerical system often used in computing to represent bytes. One must first convert this code into ASCII (for instance using an online converter), another coding system now used widely in computing. The result is the text: By simply reversing the text the message is revealed as: Message 2 The second message was emailed to Lost Ninja who posted it on his blog on September 10th (http://au.blogs.yahoo.com/lostninja/8038/apollo-news-and-one-weird-email). Solution The image must first be rotated by 180 degrees and then flipped horizontally to show legible characters. This gives the code: The code is actually a keyboard version of a shift cipher. The characters featured need to be moved one key left on a standard keyboard. For example, V becomes C, and P becomes O, so with a code such as vpmdvormvr, the result is conscience. Note that "z" equals the SHIFT key also, making the code actually quite intricate as it is as though the message was completely typed using the code. The full decoded message is: Message 3 The third message was emailed to [[The Other Girl] who posted it on her blog on September 11th (http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/L/lost/blog/index.jsp). The attachment was a Microsoft Word document (http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/L/lost/blog/cryptic_email.doc) which reads: Solution This code actually uses the octal numerical system (a base-8 code using digits 0-7), which in computing is sometimes used instead of hexadecimal. When translated into text (simply using an online converter), the message reads: Written by Blake, the message describes what happened to Blake after the conclusion of her video which clearly showed her being captured by Hanso Foundation Scientists, a matter raised by Malick in the second message. The message mentions a man known only as de Zylva who hadn't been mentioned until these communiques began. Message 4 A message was placed on thehansofoundation.org on September 12th. Right click the Flash and select Show All, the text can then be highlighted at the bottom to reveal: Solution This code is a Vigenère's cipher, once notorious for being a tough code to break. However, the code can nowadays be easily broken, and using a Vigenère decoder with a codeword length of 2 will reveal the message to be: The message is from Malick to Rachel Blake. Message 5 A morse code message was found on Hansoexposed.com on September 13th. (http://www.hansoexposed.com/message/message.mp3) Solution The morse code is: When decoded, this makes: Message 6 A new post on RachelBlake.com on on September 14th provided the following message: Solution The first part of this code is binary, a standard method of coding data. Converting this into text using any online converter makes the code: To fully decrypt the message, this code must now be converted from hexadecimal to text. After doing so (such as with online converters), the message revealed is from Malick: Message 7 The message: Was found at Rachelblake.com on her secret blog. Solution Once again, this is octal code, which when converted to text makes: When the letters are rearranged, this translates as: Message 8 A picture found on September 14th on WhereIsAlvar.com posted by rachelblake@whereisalvar.com Showed the following code: Solution The final code is arguably the most difficult to break. It involves first converting the binary to hexadecimal and then to ASCII, creating: For the final decryption, one must move along the code and take every 12th letter. This means using the code as a continuous script, counting from the end back from the beginning again. When all this is done, the message is finally revealed as: